“Development work had become more about systems and structures than the actual lived realities of people,” argues Mette Müller, founder of Best Self Experience. Can important concepts like 'empathy', 'understanding' and 'compassion' enter the way we deliver aid?[...]

2011 has been a “shake-up” year for those involved in “flipping the aid system” to put more local and national actors in the driver’s seat of development. How-matters.org is shutting down until January 15th to reflect and plan for 2012![...]

Good Fortune is an Emmy-winning PBS documentary that is a provocative exploration of how massive international efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa may be undermining the very communities they aim to benefit.[...]

“If your general impression [is that most grassroots organizations are incapacitated], then you’ve been driving a white SUV through a village to get the ‘authentic’ feel of some project.” ~Marc Maxson of GlobalGiving’s Storytelling Project[...]

“Half the stories of community change are not about NGOs at all, but individuals. It’s time NGOs realized they’re not the center of the community, and figured out how to work with the individuals who are.” ~from my interview with Marc Maxson of GlobalGiving’s Storytelling Project[...]

Aid recipients “are more concerned about ‘how’ assistance is provided than how much is given.” Initial findings from The Listening Project, a systematic exploration of the insights of people who live in societies that have been on the recipient end of international assistance efforts.[...]

Yes, the paradigm of development can break our hearts. But everyday, we have a choice. Will we slump into the system? Or will we challenge the parts of it that prevent us from feeling and exhibiting compassion?[...]

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How-matters.org explores the skills and knowledge needed by all international “do-gooders” (professional and amateur alike) to truly raise the level of human dignity within international assistance and to put real resources behind local means of overcoming obstacles.